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Even if many transactions were bolstered by cut-rate lease deals and other incentives last month, with 13,497 units rolling out of dealerships through the end of August, the Chevrolet Volt “extended range electric” sedan is outselling about half of all cars marketed in the U.S.

If indeed the Volt is a "failure," as some of its critics have contended, we’re sure there’s several auto executives out there that would like many of their slower-selling models to suffer the same fate.

Now to be fair, the industry’s top performers were responsible for far more sales over the first eight months of the year than the Volt could register in a decade at its current pace. Among passenger cars, the Toyota Camry leads the pack with 280,536 deliveries through the end of August (not counting 30,587 Camry Hybrid models). The Ford F150 pickup truck did even better with a phenomenal 408,656 units, albeit with sales bolstered by considerable cash rebates.

Still, the Volt’s 133rd-place ranking placed it ahead of industry stalwarts like the Audi A6, BMW 7-Series, Porsche Cayenne and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and it outsold most hybrids including the Toyota Prius plug-in, Honda Civic, Kia Optima, Toyota Highlander and Lexus RX 450h. Sure, the big-money incentives helped kick start sales last month, but the more Volts GM gets into consumers' hands will closer the car and its advanced technology will approach the mainstream. It took Toyota many years to become profitable with the Prius, and the company took heat investing big bucks to develop its hybrid technology back in the late 1990's when gas cost about a dollar a gallon.

Now of course, as it is in the National Football League, one great game does not ensure a Super Bowl victory, and it doesn’t help that General Motors’ executives were, shall we say, overly optimistic with the Volt’s initial sales projections, but it does look like the Volt may finally be finding a niche for itself. Or at least one that’s stronger than, say, any of the well-regarded sports cars it's handily outselling this year like the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 and BMW 6 Series. If GM can figure out how to attract a steady stream of customers without having to slap a thick wad of cash on the Volt's hood, so much the better.